It is well known that frozen food packaging must maintain its integrity throughout machine filling, sealing, freezing, storage, packing, transportation, thawing, and often cooking. Improvements in food handling, preparation and freezing has enabled a heretofore unseen variety of foodstuff to be widely available and desirable.
In the culinary arts, the term IQF stands for “individually quick frozen.” IQF foods are notable for the fact that each individual piece of food is frozen separately from all the others, thus defeating both real and perceived drawbacks and making such foodstuff easier to work with. Non-limiting examples of IQF foods are fruits (e.g., and especially, blueberries, strawberries and peaches); vegetables such as corn, peas and green beans; seafood such as shrimp and scallops; or poultry, such as individual chicken parts such as breast, tenders or wings; and, processed potatoes, commonly in the form of “fries.”
Whether in the context of IQF foodstuff or otherwise, flexible bags or the like are becoming/have become especially favored. Both commercial and retail offerings from a single source/provider are the norm, with a variety of package styles, configurations, and/or sizes for each category of purchaser. Needless to say, with the current state of affairs, a one-size-fits-most case packing system has gone the way of the dinosaur. There remains a need to at least maintain, if not improve upon system processing versatility characterized by minimal downtime, change parts etc. Moreover, there remains a need to reduced mechanical and/or operational complexity, minimize a footprint for such system, and provided an alternative to what are generally high cost robotic solutions.